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Nintendo Wii
shmokes:
I have little to go off of, cos I was born in 1978.
But I owned an Atari 2600. My life revolved around videogames and I had a lot of friends who owned them. None of our parents played. None of them. And while I just missed the Pac-Man craze, I was heavy into video arcades before Super Mario Bros. exploded onto the scene and they were frequented almost exclusively by kids and teenagers, almost all male. I didn't go into the bars, for obvious reasons, but I'd guess that the games in them were also played mainly by males under 30.
Now, I'll grant that I am basing this off of memories that probably wouldn't hold up in court, being that they are 20+ years old and from when I was very young. Maybe it just seems like it was all young boys cos the only people I went to arcades with were my own friends. But I still tend to question what you're saying.
shmokes:
I will admit, though . . . my wife does have an uncharacteristic love for Galaga.
tommy:
I was born in 78 as well.
I guess it all comes down to memories and experiences, i remember going to the arcade late at night with my family and seeing them and many older people playing these classic games. Even today, the only game i can get my mom or senior family members to play was from that era.
If the Atari didn't succeed in getting the older arcade players to buy it for their home, it probably was only because the players wanted the going out experience, just the idea of having such a machine in your home is the main reason we are all here on this board now, you still can't replace the real arcade game playing experience as it was meant to be on a full size arcade machine and is a special thing to have in your home for many reasons.
odysseyroc:
I was born in 1973, my Dad was about the age I am now when he bought our first intellivision. He mostly bought it I think because he wanted to play games. I remember him driving me and my sister all the way from The Del Amo Mall to Encino trying to find a copy of Donkey Kong when it first came out. During the week we'd play video games with kids from the neighborhood and on the weekend my uncles would come over and the adults would play Football or Baseball all night long. When NES came out my mom would play Duck Hunt with us all the time. In my experience in those days there wasn't really "gamers", it just seems like everybody was playing games.
Zero_Hour:
Well, since we're all dating ourselves.... :P
My first Atari "Console" was one of these:
http://www.atarihq.com/dedicated/stuntcycle.php
Which I received in early 77, when I was 8
I got my Atari VCS (that's what was silkscreened on it, so I can't bring myself to call it a 2600) in 1978. Arcades had yet to become the phenomenon that Space invaders(78) and Pac-Man(80) would make them, and usually arcade games were sort of just found in Hotel Lobbies, Bowling Alleys and Restaurants/Bars. There was no hardcore gamer demographic to market to, because video games were still largely seen as novelty Items by most folks.
In my neighborhood, I had an Atari, one friend had an Intellivision, and another friend had a Fairchild AND an Odyssey2. Out of all of us, My parents were the only ones who never touched the video games, but them my parents were also a bit older that theirs which probably had a little to do with it. My older sister didn't play much, but my friends younger sister was simply unstoppable at Astrosmash on the intellivision. The Intellivision definitely seemed to be the more popular with adults, at least until Atari started cranking out arcade conversions. When I talk about how those old systems were marketed, it's not from looking at old vids and guessing about it, it's because I actually absorbed it all first hand. Those products created the first of the hard-core gamers that you speak of shmokes, but the systems came first. By the early 80's and the explosion of Arcades at every mall, and even in stand alone neighborhood locations, the companies had figured out that the young male demo was their core market for both home and arcade titles, but they were all originally sold as "good wholesome family fun". Sort of a chicken and egg thing, but in this case the consoles definitely came before the 'gamer' market. It's kind of funny watching the ads for the Wii, because for me it's Deja Vu all over again. I just wish George Plimpton could have hung around a little longer to do some of the spots, although he would have probably pitched for the PS3. :P